Coach-of-the-year Kendrick and all-stars Lual and Cooper lead the UPEI‚Äą Panthers into AUS‚Äąmen‚Äôs basketball championship tournament action today in Halifax

UPEI‚ÄąPanthers head coach Tim Kendrick watches as Jonathan Cooper gets ready to take a shot during a practice this week at the UPEI‚ÄąSports Centre.

It‚Äôs the last kick at the can for UPEI Panthers Jonathan Cooper and Manock Lual so the pair intend on giving the Atlantic University Sport men‚Äôs basketball championship, which starts today in Halifax a good boot.

The fifth-year seniors lead the third-ranked UPEI men‚Äôs basketball team into its quarter-final fight today against sixth-ranked the Saint Mary‚Äôs Huskies.

Game time is 8:15 p.m.

‚ÄúObviously, we‚Äôd like the best result possible and get to Sunday‚Äôs (championship game),‚ÄĚ Cooper said after a Panthers practice this week. ‚ÄúThere a lot of doubters out there, and we want to prove them wrong.‚ÄĚ

In some ways, UPEI (13-7) came out of nowhere to lead or be at the top of the AUS standings for most of the season.

Last year, UPEI had just seven wins and suffered through a dismal seventh-place campaign.

It finished out of the post-season and prompted a head coaching change.

Out went Matthew Davies, coach since 2006, and in came Tim Kendrick, a longtime and very successful men‚Äôs basketball coach at Horton High School in Wolfville, N.S., this season.

And for Cooper, who Davies recruited from Etobicoke Collegiate institute in Ontario in 2006, the addition made all the difference as UPEI won its first seven games and made the rest of the AUS pay attention.

‚ÄúCoach Kendrick, he brought a (mindset) of how to win,‚ÄĚ said Cooper, who finished eighth overall in conference scoring this season at 17.2 points per game.

For their efforts, Kendrick was named AUS‚Äąmen‚Äôs basketball coach of the year, Lual was named to the first all-star team and Cooper was named second team all-star Thursday.

Lual, a Davies recruit in 2007 from Ottawa, Ont., sees part of UPEI‚Äôs success this season in its preparation and, he said, that will determine UPEI‚Äôs results this weekend.

‚ÄúIt‚Äôs the focus. From coaching staff to players to (trainers). Our standards are really high. I feel like we‚Äôre ready,‚ÄĚ said Lual, who was fourth in AUS scoring (17.8 points per game) and second in rebounding (8.8 per game). ‚ÄúEverything you do throughout the week in practice, in workouts, in physio, gives you the confidence to say ‚ÄėI can do nothing more. I left.‚Äô‚ÄĚ

The pair speak from experience.

Cooper and Lual have each been to the madhouse that is the AUS championship at the Halifax Metro Centre four times. The furthest the duo has reached is the semifinals in 2009.

To prepare the rest of the squad for the atmosphere this week, Kendrick held practice while loud dance music thumped through the UPEI gym and pulled back the usually closed curtains that split the gym to simulate the more open Metro Centre floor.

Another good thing, said Kendrick, is the even field.

Top-seeded St. F.X. and No. 2 Acadia earned first-round byes, but only 10 points and three wins separated UPEI and St. F.X. and only two stood between the Panthers and Acadia.

‚ÄúI think it‚Äôs wide open. Any one of the six teams can win it,‚ÄĚ said Kendrick. ‚ÄúWe‚Äôve really approached it as an exciting event. We‚Äôd play it in a parking lot if we had to.‚ÄĚ

Kendrick said freshman guard Terrance Brown, who suffered a knee injury late in the season, is in Halifax but whether he plays will be a game-time decision. Brown is 13th in AUS scoring and fourth on the Panthers at 15.3 points per game.